And yet, the more you learn about this films production, the more of a miracle it seems.
Here are all the strangest facts you oughta know about the making of Hellraiser.
And I thought, Oh, Im so fucked, I dont even have a book!'
Thats why in stalk and slash films I feel that half the story is missing.
These creatures simply become, in a very boring way, abstractions of evil.
Evil is never abstract.
It is always concrete, always particular and always vested in individuals.
I think thats a British attitude.
I like the idea that a point of view can be made by the dark side.
But Bradley drew the short straw, as Barker puts it perhaps literally.
And I would have been dead wrong.
Barker and Ashley Laurence found each other through sheer luck.
The studio wanted a name actor in the role, but Barker fought for Laurence, and finally won.
And that was my initiation.
He also contributed a lot of ad-libs to the dialogue.
For example, Robinson contributed the line, Enough of this cat and mouse shit.
The Cenobites should be magnificent super-butchers.
The makeup people had to get there even earlier to prep.
She wore the same t shirt throughout the shoot for continuity purposes.
She was made up to look filthy and sweaty at all times but she didnt mind.
Clive was like, I want you to look really crummy, and I was like, Yes!
There was an actual maggot wrangler on set.
Barker added to this:
Another thing.
This was shot in England.
We had a maggot wrangler and we also had a roach wrangler.
And the cockroaches in England are really small and uninteresting.
He said These are American cockroaches.
You have much much more interesting cockroaches!
So the wrangler, this is the honest truth, had to sex the roaches.
They were all male.
They were sort of gay roaches.
And we had a fridge.
They move very fast, so the only way to slow them down was to chill them.
We chilled the maggots and the roaches.
Wed open it up and it was all reassuring.
Laurence and Barker both cringe nowadays watching the scene in which Frank peels off a rats skin.
Both own pet rats.
Were always opposite one another.
So, most of my work (with the Cenobites) was done to a piece of masking tape.
Hence its crude appearance.
And behind the creature a huge gang of not unsizeable SFX guys.
Bob Keen gave them a good deal as it was always something he wanted to do.
This would have been nowhere near as effective.
The transformation scene was shot in the replica attic in Cricklewood.
Its inflation/deflation mechanism was powered by Bob Keen blowing into it.
The levitation scene was done using a glorified see-saw.
The scene in which Pinhead rises (levitates?)
The first torture scene featuring Sean Chapmans version of Frank (ie.
the one with skin) was actually shot before production started in earnest.
Barker and some of the crew had been conducting camera tests.
But the scene worked, the pain was authentic and the footage was used in the final cut.
He wasnt the only one throwing up on set.
His nausea was not helped by his negative reaction to the Cenobite makeup.
I was very self conscious about the fact that they all looked ludicrous.
I thought This is a screw-up.
People are going to laugh!'
Vidgeon was of the old fashioned less is more tradition.
Barker felt that they had spent all this money on the creatures and they needed to be seen.
Barker confirms on the commentary that neither theory is true.
His own working title for the movie was Sadomasochists From Beyond The Grave.
The nude murder scene was shot but, ultimately, replaced with a semi-clothed version.
Barker told Samhain in July 1987:
Well, we did have a slight problem with the eroticism.
I shot a much hotter flashback sequence than they would allow us to cut in….
Mine was more explicit and less violent.
They wanted to substitute one kind of undertow for another.
The seduction scene between Julia and Frank was, initially, a lot more explicit.
Lord knows where the spanking footage is.
This was pure exposition.
I never liked it as I was shooting it.
I really shouldnt be doing this.
I think the performances are really solid in the picture.
I think Chris Youngs score is superb.
I think in placesin places, onlythe script is fine.
In other places, it plays along with hackneyed cliches.
I could toughen up alot with it now.
But you know, you make your mistakes.
it’s possible for you to only learn by doing it, I think.
Sources: As linked, plusCliveBarker.info, DVD commentaries and The Hellraiser Chronicles, edited by Stephen Jones.
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